Charlie Musselwhite

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 4

Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie Musselwhite and his Band, at the Carlton Hotel, Thursday, October 6. Reviewed by Nevin Topp. Musselwhite, the American bluesman, was red hot. The Mississippi-born white musician showed why he is so highly regarded as a blues harp (harmonica) player as he played and sang his way through an extremely upbeat show, backed by a three-piece band that did not let him down. The show demonstrated that the blues was not necessarily about unhappiness and depression. It was music that was energetic and raw, especially when Musselwhite played his harp. There was only one genuinely slow blues number in the whole show, and that was a fine, moving instrumental in the first encore. If the audience was enthusiastic, so was Musselwhite. He seemed genuinely taken by the crowd reaction, which was at first polite when he played his opening song, “Take Me Back, Baby.” By the time he got to “I Don’t Need No Skinny Woman,” he and the backing band, especially Andrew Jones, on guitar, were beginning to set the pace Musselwhite’s voice may have mel-

lowed slightly over the years, but the musician aged 44, still showed he had teeth when he growled out “Slippin’ and Slidin’ ” with some hard-working nonstop harmonica playing that was exciting to listen to. There were some neat interchanges with the band. The song showed that Musselwhite’s harp playing could handle the fast stuff as well as reaching the high notes as on the blues instrumental earlier in the encore. Musselwhite also showed he could handle the classics. He tackled “Help Me,” the song by master harp player, Sonny Boy Williamson, with ease. The rhythm section, comprising Lynda Geiger (drums) and Artis Joyce (bass), did the job backing, both getting as equally enthusiastic as Musselwhite and Jones when the crowd responded to the music. Although the blues is a limited form, it has universal appeal, Musselwhite showed. He also showed that it was not so much work as more a love of playing the blues. “We’re here to play a little blues tonight,” was his comment when he opened the show — but Musselwhite gave more than just a little.